


Dancing in the Rain

by Decker



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: ...okay maybe just a little, Alphynecentric, F/F, Post-Pacifist Route, Spoilers - Genocide Route, Spoilers - Neutral Route, Spoilers - Pacifist Route, happy ending though I promise, trust in me that this is not sadfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 22:36:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6629770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Decker/pseuds/Decker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a few days after the barrier is broken, Alphys and Undyne experience their first thunderstorm on the surface.<br/>A short story about home, taking chances, and what could have been.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing in the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> “Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain.”  
> ― Vivian Greene

It had been a busy couple days and the monsters that had chosen to leave the underground were in a bit of a complicated position. Undyne had been spending a lot of time with Asgore as he talked with the humans. Frisk had left a good impression on her, but she still didn’t trust humans in general. Even though they weren’t at war anymore, she wanted to be there in case the humans turned on him.

Asgore and Frisk had met with some officials from the nearby city, and were still in the process of finding out where the monsters would live, what laws they would be beholden to, matters of sovereignty, and so on and so on. It was generally decided that this was far above the pay-grade of simple mayors and city officials. People at the national level had to be contacted. 

In the meantime, many monsters had taken up residence at some camping grounds at a national park further down the mountain. Undyne had managed to get a particularly nice cottage for her and Alphys. She gave a low whistle as she unlocked the door, stepped inside and flipped on the lights. 

“Not bad! Stove, coffee maker, shower.”

“And heat!” Alphys trotted in behind Undyne, rubbing her arms. Her lab coat did little to protect her from the cool, night time, mountain air. “How d-did you manage to g-get such a nice cottage, Undyne?” She asked. She didn’t want to go inside the office and deal with the human park officials. 

“Well, they were kinda being jerks at first. All ‘you need a reservation’ and whatever.” Undyne said, waving her hands. “But I was nice! Asgore told me that a kind word and a smile could get you a long way, so I gave them a big smile and politely asked for a nice place for the night, and they stopped arguing and just gave me one!”

“Uh...a...a big smile?” Alphys asked nervously. 

“Yeah! Like this.” Undyne grinned wide, showing off her razor sharp teeth. Alphys gulped. She had a special place in her heart for Undyne’s shark-like grin, but she had to admit that Undyne did look like she was about to tear someone’s throat out. 

“Well, that...that was nice of them! Eh-heh. It’s...it’s getting late, so I think I’m g-going to start to get ready for bed.” 

“Good idea, I’m gonna go get some air.”

“O-okay.” Alphys nodded. 

Undyne waved as she stepped back out into the night, closing the door behind her. Alphys stared at the door for a few seconds, wringing her hands with a worried look on her face. 

She shook her head and went to check the bedroom. 

***

Undyne leaned her back against the cottage and looked at the stars. She was still uneasy about not having a roof over her head. There was just so much space, and the world was huge. Undyne was used to being, possibly in a more literal sense than the phrase is normally used, a big fish in a small pond. 

Well, at least the night sky was better than the daylight. She spent most of her life in the dark, cool, and damp Waterfall. It was a sunny day today, and every time she was outside, it felt like the sunlight was drilling through her eye into the back of her skull. The air was dry and warm during the day too. It was like being in some half-assed Hotland. They had worked so hard to get up here and now she wondered what the big deal was. Maybe she would get used to it, but right now she just wanted to go back home

But there wasn’t any going back home now, was there? Even if Undyne’s house wasn’t burned to ashes, most monsters were going to move above-ground and the Royal Guard probably wasn’t even going to exist for much longer. She could go back to her house, or what was left of it at least, but she couldn’t go back home.

***

Upon entering, Alphys saw two beds on each side of the bedroom. She had half hoped that there was only one bed. Maybe they could have “made do” and shared one. Her face turned red at the thought, even though she knew she would never have the nerve to actually suggest it. 

Alphys checked her phone and sighed. No internet connection up here, no cell phone signal, and no TV. Nothing to do but sit and wait for Undyne come back in. Sitting alone with her thoughts didn’t appeal to Alphys right now. When she wasn’t distracted by comics or games or projects, she was thinking, and that usually involved feeling guilty or being worried 

Right now, she worried about how Undyne saw her. Undyne was big, tough, and outgoing. Alphys was...none of these things. Not to mention all the lies she told, all the monsters she hurt, and everything she just generally screwed up. She kept thinking that it would only be a matter of time before Undyne realized what she saddled herself with. 

Well, she might as well make the best of it while she could

***

Undyne turned when she heard the door open and saw Alphys step out. 

“Hey, nerd. Thought you hit the sack.” Undyne said. 

“Ah...w-w-well, I wanted to c-come out and...and spend some time with...you.” Alphys shrugged sheepishly. Undyne grinned and sat on the packed dirt next to the cottage, patting the ground next to her. Alphys walked over and sat down as close to Undyne as she had the nerve to, while Undyne leaned her head back and stared at the stars again. 

The sat like this in silence for a while. Alphys tried to inch a bit closer to Undyne, watching her face to see if she noticed. All Alphys could see was that she looked kind of down. 

“Uh...are...are you okay?”

“Hm? Oh! Yeah, just thinking about...stuff.” Undyne smiled and shrugged. 

“What...uh...kind of...of stuff?”

“Ah, it’s not really…” Undyne rubbed the back of her head and sighed. “Have you ever like...worked really hard towards something you thought you wanted, and then you get it and realize that it isn’t even that great?”

Alphys froze up.  _ Oh no, she’s talking about me, isn’t she? _

“All I wanted to do was help break the barrier and leave the underground,” Undyne went on. “and now that I’m on the surface, it’s too bright, it’s too dry, it’s too big! And there’s so many humans! Jeeze.”

Alphys breathed a small sigh of relief. She was really worried for a second. 

“I...uh...I g-g-guess.” Alphys said. “My p-problem is more messing things up on the way or...or...not even trying in the first place, I guess. I just...I get so afraid of what might happen and I…I over think and just…”

“You’ll get there. Don’t worry.” Undyne put a hand on Alphys’ shoulder and smiled at her. Alphys just blushed and looked down. 

Right then, Alphys realized that they never actually kissed. The one time they tried, Toriel interrupted them. They admitted their feelings for each other, but there hasn’t been anything more romantic than hand holding or hugs. Her gaze drifted back over to Undyne, who had gone back to looking at the stars

She could just, move a little bit closer, like this, and then she would be close enough to just give her a kiss. A kiss under the stars, that would be romantic. 

She could just crane her neck up. Or get her attention, or...something. 

Any second now.

Undyne sighed. “Great, clouds are coming in.” 

Alphys looked up and saw that a good chunk of the stars in the sky were gone and that more were disappearing as the clouds rolled in. 

“Let’s go back in. I’m getting sleepy anyway.” Undyne sad, getting back to her feet. 

“Yeah, okay.” Alphys said sadly, though that had little to do with the cloudy skies. 

***

Alphys didn’t sleep well that night, dreams plagued with memories of things that never happened. 

She dreamed about being in her lab, watching her monitor. A human had made their way underground and...it was horrible. They weren’t just cutting through every monster the happened to come across. They were hunting monsters down. They were about to strike down a young monster when Undyne finally caught up. Then, suddenly, Undyne was cut clean in half. Alphys clamped her hands over her mouth and stared at the monitor with wide eyes. It was almost like Undyne wasn’t even there. The human had cut through her like she was a patch of fog.

She watched in amazement as Undyne reformed, using pure willpower and determination. She watched as Undyne fought like a raging typhoon. She watched the human predict her every, perfectly executed strike. 

She watched Undyne’s body start to eat itself away in a horrifyingly familiar way. 

“Oh no. No, no, no.” Alphys pleaded quietly. She had a horrible vision of Undyne trapped in the underground lab with the rest of her failures, reduced to a raging, broken, abomination. 

When Undyne fell to ashes, Alphys choked back a sob. She was never going to get a chance to admit her feelings to Undyne. She wouldn’t be able to spend any more time with her. She wouldn’t be able to walk under the stars on the surface with her. She should have...should have told her…

The only thing she could do now is make sure that there would be monsters alive to remember Undyne, the Captain of the Guard, who died like a hero, and fought on even after that. She would have to move fast to stay ahead of the human. 

Alphys turned around and nearly ran right into a Sans, standing there with a humorless smile and a glowing, blue eye.

***

Alphys thrashed and sat bolt upright in bed, shaking and sweating. She was in bed, with a dim light shining through the window. She took some deep breaths and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. It was just a dream. They were on the surface. Everything was fine. 

She looked over at Undyne laying in the bed across the room. She was moving slowly, and Alphys assumed that she had woken her up.

“S-sorry, Undyne. I...just had a bad dream. I uh...I dreamed that you...you died. That...a human had gotten...”

“...won’t die.” Undyne mumbled. 

“Yeah, I know. It was just a dr-”

“...won’t...won’t die.” Undyne groaned. Alphys leaned over and looked at Undyne in concern. 

***

Undyne dreamed of a familiar fight, but with a different outcome.

Frisk watched sadly as Undyne fought the losing battle of keeping herself together long enough to finish the fight. Long after she should have died anyway, her spear fell through her fingers as they started to turn to dust. Undyne looked at her own hands, falling away in lumps of ash.  Facing a scared, regretful child, she didn’t have the righteous fury to become the Undying. She pushed forward anyway, willing her body back together. She was so close. 

“I won’t die.”

It was like trying to hold a handful of water. No matter how hard you try, it slowly leaks through your fingers. The determination that was holding her together started to break her body down. She took a step forward.

“I won’t die!”

Frisk was shaking, hurt, and backing away from Undyne until their back was pressed against the wall. Undyne took another step, but it was shaky and slow. Pieces of her body were melting away. 

“I...won’t...” Undyne’s lower legs fell apart and she dropped to her knees. She looked up at Frisk, who sat against the wall, closing their eyes and silently mouthing _ 'I’m sorry’  _ over and over.

Undyne could feel her body dissolving into ash as she fell forward. 

***

Undyne fell to the floor with a crash, taking a majority of the blankets with her. She tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes and figure out where she was.

“Un-Undyne? Are you okay?” Alphys asked, peering over the edge of her own bed at Undyne in concern.

“Alphys? What’s...where’s the hu-” They both jumped as a deafening boom shook the whole house. “Cave in!” Undyne yelled, scrambling to her feet in a panic.

“N-no! Undyne, we’re not underground!” Alphys said. 

“We’re...we’re not.” Undyne said calming down a bit. The cobwebs had been shaken out of her head by now. If they weren’t underground, what shook the cottage? Undyne summoned a spear and pointed to Alphys with her other hand. “Stay here. I’ll go check it out.”

“Undyne, w-wait. It’s just…” Alphys started, but Undyne was already gone. 

Undyne stood under the cottage’s covered porch, scanning the forest around them. At first, Undyne thought it was still night out, but soon she realized that the morning sun was blotted out by thick, dark clouds. Still, she couldn't find anything that looked like a threat. 

“Undyne!” Alphys yelped, having found her glasses and lab coat. Undyne looked back at Alphys and just shrugged her shoulders. She wasn’t sure what was going on. Then there was a bright flash, causing them to both look at the sky again, followed a couple seconds later by another loud, rumbling boom. 

Then the rain started. It came down hard and fast, shaking the leaves on the trees and rattling the roof of the covered porch. Undyne stared in awe as another bolt of lightning cut through the sky, making it look like the sky was a cracking stone. The thunder followed a second afterwards. 

“It’s...uh...it’s a thunderstorm.” Alphys said, as the echoes died away. “It’s j...just something that happens on the surface, from what I hear.”

“Really?” She heard about them here and there, but she never thought about them much. Rain was rain, right? She saw it every day back home. Never like this, though. This was almost like being under one of the waterfalls. Undyne held her hand out under the rain and watched it run off of her fingers. “Wild.”

She pulled her hand back and flicked her wrist to shake some of the water off. Alphys shuffled up next to Undyne and, after a moment’s hesitation, leaned up against her. Undyne reached over and put her hand on Alphys’ shoulder. They stood there and watched the torrential downpour. It had only been raining a few minutes, and already great big puddles were forming in the dirt around the cottage. 

Undyne grinned. 

“I’ll be right back.” She said, patting Alphys’ shoulder.

“Huh? Where are…” Alphys trailed off as Undyne stepped out into the rain. 

Before she did what she came out here to do, Undyne took a minute to look up at the sky and let the rain wash over her. She took a deep breath, focusing on the feeling of the cool rain on her face and the clean smell of the air. It might have just been the fish in her, but she felt...content. Maybe it wasn’t so bad up here after all. 

Then Undyne turned and, with a huge grin and a yell, lept into the closest puddle with a big splash.

Alphys couldn’t help but smile as she watched Undyne jump from puddle to puddle, throwing up big splashes of water. This was one of the things that Alphys loved about Undyne. She was a highly trained warrior and the head of the royal guard, but in many ways, she was still an excitable kid. She jumped in puddles, noogied her friends, and had pillow fights. And she wasn’t ashamed about it. Alphys always felt ashamed. She felt like people were judging her for everything she did. 

Some small part of her wanted to join Undyne out there in the rain. But, that would feel so silly, wouldn’t it? She would look like an idiot, running around in a rainstorm. It’s not like she could even jump well either. But, Undyne looked like she was having fun, and it’s not like anyone else was around to see them. 

Alphys thought back on her dream, and all the things she could have done with Undyne that she passed up because she was afraid of what might happen. She took her phone out of her pocket and put it down on the floor of the cottage, away from the door. After a moment of hesitation, she braced herself and stepped out into the rain. 

Alphys tensed up and gasped, nearly sending her into a coughing fit. She was instantly soaked, and the water was cold! The rain on her glasses made it hard to see where she was going, not that she would be able to see any better with her glasses off. As soon as the initial shock wore off, she found Undyne and ran in her direction. 

“Uh-Undyne!” Alphys called out. Undyne turned and looked at Alphys with a bemused look on her face. 

“Al? What are you doing out here?! You’re gonna get soaked!” 

“Well, you’re out here getting just as soaked!” Alphys said defensively. 

“Alphys, I’m part fish!” Undyne laughed. “I'm built to get wet.”

“Uh...w-well...you just...you looked like you were...having a really good time. And I kinda...I wanted to be a part of it.” Alphys said quietly, looking up and Undyne. Undyne looked puzzled for a few seconds before shifting into a soft grin. 

“Alright, Al. C’mon.” She said, grabbing the little lizard’s hand. “I’ll show you how to make a  _ real _ big splash!”

Alphys and Undyne spent the next few minutes jumping from puddle to puddle, slowly working their way down the dirt path, punctuated by rumbling thunderclaps. Alphys couldn’t jump nearly as far as Undyne, but she still managed to make some pretty big splashes all the same. Every time she did, Undyne cheered and jumped in after her. It was mindless, tiring, messy, and more than a bit embarrassing, but Undyne’s good mood and smile were infections and Alphys found herself having fun. 

They came to the biggest puddle yet. Like all the others, Alphys took a running leap and jumped in. This time, she nearly toppled forward. It was much deeper than it looked, and it threw her off balance. She turned around to warn Undyne, but she was already in midair. Undyne landed and her face took on an edge of panic as she leaned too far forward and fell right on top of Alphys, who went down into the water with a yelp. Undyne pushed herself back up, so she wasn’t lying right on Alphys anymore. Alphys lifted her head up and spat out some water. 

“Sorry, Al!” Undyne said over the rain. “Kind of misjudged that one. You okay?”

“Uh, uh, y-yeah! Fine! Great!” Alphys said, face turning red. Oh God Undyne was practically laying on top of her in wet clothes and wet hair and water dripping off of her face like sweat! Alphys was afraid the puddle water around her would start steaming. Undyne noticed her discomfort.

“What’s wrong, Al? You look a bit flustered there.” She said with a mischievous grin.

“W-well, It’s not that often I get beautiful women throwing themselves at me.” Alphys said in a moment of uncharacteristic smoothness. 

This time it was Undyne that looked flustered. She was used to being viewed as the big, tough, soldier lady. She had teeth like razors, scaly skin, and so many scars that she stopped trying to keep count. No one has ever called her beautiful before. 

_ She’s leaning over you and you just delivered the best line of your life, _ Alphys thought to herself _ , now’s your chance.  _

_ But it’s raining and we’re in a -  _

_ I can’t just -  _

_ What if she - _

Alphys closed her eyes, craned her neck up, and kissed Undyne full on the lips. Undyne made a small, surprised sound, but didn’t pull away. Alphys felt her heart pound and skin prickle, like the air was filled with static. She often heard that a first kiss could be electrifying, but she didn’t expect it to feel quite so literal.

Alphys pulled her head away, leaving Undyne looking stunned. For a few, terrible seconds, Alphys thought she had gone too far. She was sure that Undyne was about to yell and storm off and leave her out here in this puddle like a drowned rat. Instead, Undyne grinned and gave her a look that made a shiver run up her spine. 

“Doctor Alphys, you shameless flirt.” She said.

“I’m far from shameless.” Alphys huffed. Her skin was prickling even more now. 

“Yeah, well, we’ll work on that.” Undyne closed her eyes and leaned closer. 

Suddenly, only a couple dozen yards away away from the path they were on, there was a blinding flash and an ear splitting boom as a lightning bolt struck a nearby tree. Undyne instinctively shifted herself upward and covered Alphys with her body to shield her from any flying debris. As soon as the splinters stopped bouncing, both Undyne and Alphys looked at the smoldering remains of the tree trunk in mute horror. Alphys was the one to break the silence. 

“I...I th-think we should go back inside now.” She stammered quickly.

“Yeah. Sure. Okay.” Undyne got to her feet, scooped a protesting Alphys up under her arm, and ran back down the path to the cottage. 

***

Alphys sat on her bed and shifted uncomfortably, wrapped up in a bed sheet while her lab coat was hung up near the furnace vent to dry. Undyne walked in, wearing a bed sheet of her own. She had toweled off her bright red hair as best as she could and sat down heavily next to Alphys, nearly bouncing her off of the bed. 

“Well! That was fun.” Undyne smiled. 

“I’m still stuck on the part where we almost exploded.” Alphys mumbled. 

“Aw, come on! Think of it as an adventure! We got a neat story to tell now.” Undyne laughed. 

A smile started to creep its way across Alphys’ face, in spite of herself. “Y-yeah, I guess.”

Undyne casually leaned against Alphys, causing the poor lizard to start turning red again.

“Y’know, maybe it isn’t so bad up here.” Undyne said. “Hopefully, Asgore will work something out with the humans. There are things I still want to see!”

“L-Like what?”

“Like the ocean! We should go to the beach. We could chill out, make sand castles, go swimming. You’d look adorable in a swimsuit, you know.” Undyne grinned down at her. 

Alphys dreaded the thought of being in public in a swimsuit. She was so out of shape and couldn’t do much besides keep her head above the water and everyone would laugh…well they might…

“Ah...well, yeah. Why not? Sounds like...like it could be fun.” Alphys smiled. 

“Great!” Undyne reached out and picked up Alphys in big hug.

“Undyne, wait! The sheet!” 

**Author's Note:**

> For Alphyne Week, day 3, week 6, Prompt was "Rain".  
> Check out more at http://alphyneweek.tumblr.com/


End file.
